Fermi

The Fermi method of estimation is a powerful tool in calculations,

when given little to no data.

Each step is approximated and rounded off to the nearest order of 10.
The answer is given in the order of 10 i.e. if the result is 1017, then the
An Introduction.
answer would be 17.
Impulse, the physics club of The Mothers International School, is a
Following are some of the questions from our Fermi worksheets of
group of students from classes 9-12, bonded by our common love of
April and May. Interested readers are free to try them out.
physics. As a club, we perform experiments, hold discussions and
monthly Fermi practise sessions. Our annual intra-school event,
Infinity, is organised in the month of July.
(i) How many tablespoons full of water are needed to fill the Indian
Starting off as small club, we grew to be more active. Lately, we Ocean?
realized we needed a way to record and compile all of our pursuits.
Thus, Nat was born. (ii) If earth was a balloon, how many times would you need to blow
in it to inflate it?
The inspiration for the name lies in the word natural. nat is the
symbol for the natural unit of information, which is what we intend (iii) How many 50ml paint tubes would be required to entirely paint
this newsletter to become for Impulse. one side of the school boundary wall?

This edition is only the first. We are looking forward to many more. (iv) How long of an Anchor thread can you make, given one cotton
bedroom pillowcase (knowing that 1 Anchor thread is composed of 6
individual threads)?

(v) How much does a toothpick cost?

(vi) How many phone chargers would be required to supply as much

power as the sun supplies to the earth?

Answers: (i) 22 (ii) 27 (iii) 3 (iv) 5 (v) -1 (vi) 16

 Members

Aalhad Bhatt President

Amishi Sanghi President

Aaryan Srivastava

Anirudh Kalla

Shubhangi Dutta

Vedaant Sikka

Anish Bajaj

Parijat Banerjee

Swastik Patnaik

Ayush Anand

Visit us at teamimpulse.co
gravity on the front half will make the cylinder roll continuously as it
overcomes the increased mass of the back half.
These are just our first experiments, and we hope to discover more
about this cylinder in the future.
-Aalhad Bhatt
The Paper Clip Problem
The members of Impulse participated in an estimation activity in
February. Each student was given a test tube that was filled almost
to the brim with dilute KMnO4 solution, as well as a paper clip.
They were asked to approximate the number of paper clips that
would be required to be put in the test tube in order to make the
solution overflow.
A variety of methods, approximation, and formulae led to answers
ranging from 4 to 23 paper clips. The students verified their
estimates by performing the experiment themselves. The value was
found to be 12 paper clips, with the closest estimate being 11, by
Amishi Sanghi.
-Shubhangi Dutta
Building a Rube Goldberg Machine
On May 12, Modern School, Barakhamba Road organised an
interschool competition for which a team of students was sent to
build a Rube Goldberg machine. We spent 3 hours working on it,
covering a total of 9 steps, with the final aim of ringing a desk bell.
We had to think of an idea and then look for anything in the Physics
Lab which would help us achieve it. Thankfully, Nitin Sir gave us
almost everything we asked for. We used all sorts of items, from a
childs toy to plastic scrap.
It started with a basketball rolling down an optical bench and
hitting a seesaw-like plank, which tugged a string around an axle,
triggering a set of dominoes on a stool to fall. They pushed a metal
roller down an incline which hit another seesaw on which a toy cat
was kept, stretched by a spring inside it.
The cat accelerated forward and knocked a few stiff books down like
dominoes. These tugged a rope, tied to a weight kept on top of a
stool. As the weight was pulled down, a string pulled up a banner,
via a pulley, which then pulled up a toy car track. A metal ball kept
on the track rolled down, hitting another set of dominos. This set-up
pushed a tiny hammer onto the bell and made it ring.
Satisfied with the machine, we sent a video for the preliminary
round. After getting selected into the top 8, we thought of adding
something to the machine to give it an edge, so we spent 3 more
hours building just one step. It took us the same amount of time that
was required to build the whole machine itself.
The addition was simple. The string tied to the weight was put into
the stem of a funnel which had Rangoli colour (sand) in it. Below
that funnel was a box which was tied to the track in a pulley fashion.
The rest of the machine was same.
Basically, the string was pulled and it came out of the funnel. The
sand fell steadily into the box, increasing its weight, and like a
balance, the box went down, and the string attached to the track
was pulled up, pulling the track up with it.
The machine worked beautifully. All of us were thrilled after the first
complete execution, jumping and cheering. It was a combination of
out-of-the-box thinking and silly ideas which were what we
implemented.
But thats essentially what a Rube Goldberg machine is. All your
efforts have to go in to wasting as much time as possible by using as
many unnecessary steps as possible. You have to look at the machine
and be satisfied that this is the craziest way of reaching your goal.
And the most fun. Surely, ours was.
I am happy to say, at the end, Hum Jeet Gaye.
-Vedaant Sikka
The Anti-gravity Cylinder
A rather interesting and non-intuitive phenomenon can be observed
using the principles of rotation. The idea to test out this principle
has been taken from the YouTube channel "Veritasium. Interested
readers can view the original video online.
(https://youtu.be/HgCXdNhVC1Q)
The phenomenon is displayed by a specially prepared cylinder. From
the top of a ramp, inclined at a specific angle, the cylinder
commences to roll as expected, with acceleration. But as it reaches a
maximum, it starts decelerating while being on the ramp! Once it
stops, it remains there for a fraction of a second, then starts
accelerating again. It repeats this until it reaches the bottom of the
ramp.
So what magical properties does the cylinder have that allow it to
behave like this? Am interior consisting of a viscous liquid with two
table tennis balls inserted. Essentially, what happens is that as the
cylinder moves forward, so do the ping pong balls. This
configuration allows an equal amount of weight at the back half of
the cylinder as there is in the front half, essentially negating the
effect of gravity.
But however viscous the liquid may be, it still allows the balls to
move back and reach the median position after which the rotation of
the cylinder restarts.
Building up on the video, Impulse has also discovered that the denser
the liquid is, the higher is the maximum incline at which the cylinder
exhibits this behaviour. Above this angle, the increased force due to